Montreal Day 2: Barbie Expo

I set off about an hour later than I did on day one, due to yesterday’s post going up kind of…late? Early? Both?

Anyway, I didn’t have breakfast and reached Centre Ville around lunchtime, so I went to the second of three places I knew I wanted to eat at. I went to the bagel place on Day 1 and this day I went to a vegan/vegetarian restaurant in Old Town called Lov.

I actually walked past it at first because I couldn’t read the logo, but found it eventually!

It’s got a very hipster/Mother Nature/Beverly Hills vibe to it. I was seated at the bar which was a first for me. Not the bar, but being alone at a bar for brunch.

And can you guess what I, a millennial, ordered at a hipster vegan restaurant?

Avocado bread. And a summer salad for my entree.

They were good, and priced decently for the area, the fact that it was vegan, and the service and decor. But…I think the bagel was more worth it to me. However, this served as a full brunch and lasted me a good while, and I still loved it.

The one thing I didn’t like was this one guy at the bar a few seats away, who seemed nice at first. But after the first “hello”, a raised glass, a smile, and a wink, there was another raised glass, a smile, a wink, and then another, and another. And when two men came and sat between us, this guy actually leaned back and forward to try to catch my eye so he could continue to wink, smile, raise a glass… And when I stopped looking in his direction, HE MOVED TO SIT AROUND THE CORNER SO HE WAS MORE IN FRONT OF ME.

So naturally, I was thinking up my self-defence moves and how to get a picture in case my body is found in a gutter somewhere and I’m still trying to avoid his eyes although it’s more difficult now. I’m starting to panic a little bit because every time I glance up or even see him out of the corner of my eye, he is unabashedly staring at me, and I’m alone in a city where I hardly speak the language, and I am never, ever sitting alone at a bar ever again.

But I’m actually a really slow eater (my friends will vouch for me) and the salad was like three inches deep and all this thinking was making me eat slower than usual and even though he ordered another glass of wine when he was done, I out-waited him and he left. I was still keeping an eye out in case he was waiting. (In a world of Brock Turners, one must be vigilant.) He wasn’t.

Anyway, after that little drama, I headed to the Barbie Expo. Yes. Barbie Expo.

It was actually pretty cool, and totally free so what the hell?

They had Barbies of all sorts, and some were set up in displays. Most were on the walls, dolls of every kind from every Barbie era. There were even a few cringe-y ones, but I passed over those.

A New York City street.

A Vegas Casino…

…with a Daniel Craig as James Bond Barbie. Or is it a Ken doll? I dunno.

Backstage of a Barbie fashion show.

There were some pretty amazing Barbies. They had precious stone-themed Barbies:

Barbies representing different types of dances:

Barbies with some amazing hair and costumes on:

Continental Barbies:

Here we see Asia, Africa, and Americas Barbies.

There were Barbies from different eras:

Barbies from different countries:

And even a Barbie Dog.

All these Barbies inspired me to make up a little game for you guys. I call it, guess the Barbies. Basically, you guess what kind of Barbie is in the picture and then go to the next picture to see if you got it right. Press pause so it doesn’t skip ahead on you!

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And that’s all of them! There’s a picture of Vivien Leigh at the end because holy cow they got her face so right. How’d you do? Put your score in the comments below!

I did more than that in Day 2, but because this post is already so long, I’ll tell you the rest tomorrow and call it Day 3.